How does EMSTesting.com meet CoAEMSP requirements?

As you may already know, CoAEMSP came out with a new Interpretation of the Standards and Guidelines in August 2015. Below is an explanation of how EMSTesting.com helps you meet/exceed these requirements.

Admission Testing

CoAEMSP Requirements and/or Interpretations: Other dimensions of the program may merit consideration such as the admission criteria and process, the curriculum design, and the purpose and productivity of an advisory committee.

Platinum Educational Group offers Math, Reading, Learning Style, Motivation, and Test Anxiety assessments. For Paramedic and AEMT programs an entry-level Basic EMT evaluation is included.

Cognitive Evaluation

CoAEMSP Requirements and/or Interpretations: Program evaluation should utilize certification examinations developed by an independent national organization that employ cut scores based upon a valid psychometric formula which judges entry level competence and uses practice analysis consistent with the description of the profession. Examinations should be national in scope with uniform passing standards and statistical reports. Cognitive instruments should reflect the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Psychological Association.

Platinum Educational Group has over 5000 questions in our banks that have been validated by over 27 million responses from around the nation. Items are evaluated for cut score, difficulty, discrimination, p values, and point biserials. Questions were developed directly from the National Registry Practice Analysis, Educational Standards, and the appropriate Curricular objectives from the NHTSA Guidelines. Questions are developed and reviewed by educators, and content experts, as well our own medical director for all high-stakes exam items. NOTE: Platinum Educational Group’s Final Exams that come from an independent bank that those found in our linear or adaptive exam items. Every candidate and instructor is able to provide feedback on all of our questions.

CoAEMSP Requirements and/or Interpretations: Program evaluation should be a continuing and systematic process with internal and external curriculum validation in consultation with employers, faculty, preceptors, students and graduates Validity must be demonstrated on major exams, but methods may vary depending on the number of students. All exams should be reviewed by item analysis, which includes difficulty index (p+) and discrimination index (point bi-serial correlation).

For programs using a commercial testing product, the program must demonstrate, through the program’s own item analysis, that the test items used are valid and reliable for the program. Simply quoting the national validity and reliability information provided by the vendor does not adequately establish that the test items are valid and reliable for the specific curriculum of the specific program.

Programs are directed to our template policy on internal and external validation. Each evaluation offered on-line provides validation statistics (both internal and external). The template policy provides direction, once adopted by the program, on how to respond to questions with less than positive discrimination and/or point Biserial results as well as difficulty with both internal and external statistics.

CoAEMSP Requirements and/or Interpretations: The didactic evaluation system must include both formative and summative types of evaluations (e.g. quizzes, exams).

There should be a progression in the level of questions toward higher levels of critical thinking.

The examinations must be reviewed for validity and medical accuracy. The Medical Director must review the medical content and accuracy of the examination system. These activities must be documented (see III.B.2.a.2).

All EMSTesting.com questions are coded to Bloom levels and reading levels. Instructors develop examinations based on selected criteria chosen by them. Included within our program is a Medical Director roll to log in and evaluate any or all examinations created whether they are summative or formative. Platinum Educational Group’s Final Comprehensive Exams are blueprinted to mid and higher-level Bloom questions as well as each subtest weighted to follow the National Registry blueprint.

Responsibilities of Faculty

CoAEMSP Requirements and/or Interpretations: In each location where students are assigned for didactic or clinical instruction or supervised practice, there shall be instructional faculty designated to coordinate supervision and provide frequent assessments of the students’ progress in achieving acceptable program requirements.

Instructors are able to review, select, and arrange all questions on formative evaluations. The instructors are also able to develop and deploy any of their own questions. Instructor questions, once deployed, are provided with statistics to include distribution, difficulty, discrimination, and point biserial. The EMS program director is able to see all of the tests and results to determine effects of changes in the program.

In addition, Platinum EMSTesting.com offers a Computer Adaptive experience that is designed to be a little more difficult than the National Registry. This experience allows students to be prepared for the type of examination they are about to encounter and provides feedback to the program and student of areas of strengths and weaknesses.

This article was written by Platinum Educational Group CEO, Doug Smith, and is very important to the EMS world. If you have any questions, or would like further information, on this subject matter please reach out to him at doug@platinumed.com. He is happy to field all questions and feedback.